flowable/flowable-engine · error · XMLException

e.getMessage()

Error message

e.getMessage()

What it means

In the same convertToBpmnModel(InputStreamProvider, String) catch-all, any non-XMLStreamException Exception during the first parse pass is rethrown as XMLException whose message is the original e.getMessage(). It is a generic wrapper so all parse failures surface as Flowable XMLException.

Source

Thrown at modules/flowable-bpmn-converter/src/main/java/org/flowable/bpmn/converter/BpmnXMLConverter.java:303

        }
        
        if (xif.isPropertySupported(XMLConstants.ACCESS_EXTERNAL_SCHEMA)) {
            xif.setProperty(XMLConstants.ACCESS_EXTERNAL_SCHEMA, "");
        }

        if (validateSchema) {
            try (InputStreamReader in = new InputStreamReader(inputStreamProvider.getInputStream(), encoding)) {
                if (!enableSafeBpmnXml) {
                    validateModel(inputStreamProvider);
                } else {
                    validateModel(new FlowableXMLStreamReader(xif.createXMLStreamReader(in)));
                }
            } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
                throw new XMLException("The bpmn 2.0 xml is not properly encoded", e);
            } catch(XMLStreamException e){
                throw new XMLException("Error while reading the BPMN 2.0 XML", e);
            } catch(Exception e){
                throw new XMLException(e.getMessage(), e);
            }
        }
        // The input stream is closed after schema validation
        try (InputStreamReader in = new InputStreamReader(inputStreamProvider.getInputStream(), encoding)) {
            // XML conversion
            return convertToBpmnModel(xif.createXMLStreamReader(in));
        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
            throw new XMLException("The bpmn 2.0 xml is not properly encoded", e);
        } catch (XMLStreamException e) {
            throw new XMLException("Error while reading the BPMN 2.0 XML", e);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new XMLException(e.getMessage(), e);
        }
    }

    public BpmnModel convertToBpmnModel(XMLStreamReader xtr) {
        BpmnModel model = new BpmnModel();
        model.setStartEventFormTypes(startEventFormTypes);

View on GitHub (pinned to d6d39ce1c6)

Solutions

1. Inspect the cause chain (e.getCause()) — the real error text is in the wrapped exception.
2. Fix the underlying problem reported by the cause (invalid model element, NPE in a custom converter, etc.).
3. Re-run the model through the Flowable modeler or validateModel to catch issues before deploy.
4. Upgrade flowable-bpmn-converter if the cause indicates a known converter bug.

Example fix

// before
catch (XMLException e) { log.error(e.getMessage()); } // message may be empty/obscure
// after
catch (XMLException e) {
    Throwable cause = e.getCause();
    log.error("BPMN parse failed: {}", cause != null ? cause.getMessage() : e.getMessage(), cause);
}

try {
    converter.convertToBpmnModel(provider, encoding);
} catch (XMLException e) {
    // message is e.getMessage() of the wrapped cause — always log the cause chain
    log.error("BPMN first-pass parse failed", e);
    Throwable root = e;
    while (root.getCause() != null) root = root.getCause();
    throw new DeploymentException("Root cause: " + root.getMessage(), e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any RuntimeException (e.g. NullPointerException, IllegalArgumentException from a converter, SAX validation error wrapped differently) thrown while validateModel or createXMLStreamReader processes the first-pass stream in convertToBpmnModel(InputStreamProvider, String).

Common situations: XSD validation failing in validateModel with a differently-wrapped exception, custom converter extensions throwing, or JDK/stax implementation quirks when reading the deployed BPMN file.

Understand the failure class

Background: JSON parse error: "Unexpected token" / "not valid JSON" / "failed to parse" — what JSON parsers are really complaining about — this error's family across 45 libraries.

Related errors

• The bpmn 2.0 xml is not properly encoded
• Error while reading the BPMN 2.0 XML
• Error reading XML
• Error writing BPMN XML
• BPMN XSD could not be found

AI-assisted analysis of flowable/flowable-engine@d6d39ce1c6 (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/96fd2abdb109d237. Report an issue: GitHub.